


Obstacles Become Liabilities and Liabilities Become Threats

by n_cat18



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cute, Eventual Romance, Hurt/Comfort, I'm planning on making a comic to go along with it, Kidnapping, Leon is smarter than Rose thinks, M/M, Mutual Pining, My first SWSH fic I hope yall like it, kind of slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:24:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21787534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/n_cat18/pseuds/n_cat18
Summary: Rose realizes that Victor is a threat to his plan to induce the darkest day, and he can’t have that.Fic does contain scenes of kidnapping - read at your own discretion.
Relationships: Hop/Masaru | Victor, Leon/Raihan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 299





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first SWSH fic! I finished this game really fast - a lot faster than I thought I would and I hope the fandom starts to grow after Christmas too since a lot of people will be getting the game as a gift and whatnot. I plan on releasing a comic to go with this fic, but that's pretty far in the future. I don't have a drawing tablet yet. Don't have high expectations, by the way, my writing is a lot better than my art. If I do get around to making a comic, I'll post it on Tumblr and add a link to this fic. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: 

Rose sat in his office, hundreds of stories above Wyndon. He stared at the papers in front of him, biting his lip, deep in thought. There were some unexpected snags in his plan. It wasn’t Leon, he was surprisingly easy to manipulate. It was Leon’s endorsements. Hop wasn’t much of a problem. If that kid Bede could beat him, he couldn’t be too much of a threat. It was the other kid Rose was worried about. What was his name? Hector? Vector? Victor? Whatever, it didn’t matter. That kid could be a liability. Rose had watched him completely destroy the gym challenge. Even Raihan, who was often more than a match for any gym challenger had been defeated within the kid’s first two pokemon. It was rather scary. And what with that kid helping Sonia stick her nose where it didn’t belong, he could be a serious threat. Rose sighed and stood, walking to the window, he stared out at Galar. That was when the idea came to him. If there’s a liability to your company, you do your best to eliminate it. That had always been his policy. Get rid of obstacles before they become threats. Why was this situation any different? It was for the greater good of the region after all. He went back over to his desk and took out his phone. 

“Oleana, please come to my office. Bring several of our more... loyal league staff with you I have an important errand.” He watched his phone till the reply came. 

“Yes sir, we’ll be there in five minutes.” He nodded. Obstacles become liabilities and liabilities become threats. Best get rid of it early before it’s a danger.  
\---  
Victor looked around Wyndon feeling a little overwhelmed.  
“Hey, Hop?” He looked at his best friend “I know we just got here, but I’m thinking of heading back to the wild area. I want to train up before the semifinals.”  
Hop grinned “Yeah that sounds like a good idea, I’ll go with you! I’ll have to be in the best shape of my life before I beat Lee!”  
The two of them walked over to the flying taxis chatting about their Pokemon and all the battles they had been in since they last saw each other. 

\--

Soon they were flying over Galar together the wind whipping past the carriage. Victor smiled looking down at the cities and towns below.  
“I love being up here, it’s so quiet.” He said softly, looking at the land that seemed to stretch into infinity.  
Hop nodded, he was acting odd.  
Victor looked over at him.“Hey, are you okay?”  
Hop nodded again grinning. “It’s just nice to be up here with you.” He said his cheeks blushing faintly.  
Victor looked at him for a moment before smiling widely “I can’t imagine anyone else I’d rather be here with.” Hop blushed a darker shade of pink and they sat together watching the clouds speed past them. Victor pretended not to notice when Hops pinky finger hooked around his. 

\--

When the flying taxi dropped them off outside of Hammerlocke, the sun was already setting. Victor looked up at the sky. 

“I bet it’s going to be cold tonight. Do you want to camp out on the other side of the Lake of Outrage? There’s a lot of strong Pokemon over there.”  
Hop grinned “I’ll race you!” he said pulling his bike out before Victor could finish his sentence. And he was off, before Victor could comprehend what was happening, his best friend was flying through the wild area on his bike laughing. 

Victor got on his bike and chased him stirring up the wild Pokemon living in the grass. They were both laughing now as they rode across the lake in their modified bikes, the wild Mantyke leaping through the air around them in graceful arches. At the shore, Victor’s front tire hit a rock and sent him flying over the handlebars and face first into the dirt at the feet of a wild Umbreon that was strolling through. The sun was setting rapidly and the Umbrion had just woken up and come out of it’s nest. It seemed to regard him haughtily as it sauntered away. Victor laughed and sat up pulling his bike from the shallow water. He looked up and noticed Hop watching him with an odd look in his eyes. 

“You okay?” He asked Hop as he leaned his bike against the boulder by the lakeshore.

Hop blinked and his face seemed to reset into his natural grin. “Yeah, I’m fine!” he said “You took quite the fall though,” 

Victor shrugged. “I’m okay, should we set up camp for the night?” 

\--  
Victor looked through his bag’s berry pocket he frowned realizing he had used all his berries camping on the way to Wyndon. He frowned. 

“Hop, I’m going to ride back and look for some berries I’m completely out.” He said putting his backpack back on. 

“Ok, look for something dry, I’m thinking of using sausages and I don’t want it to be too oily.” Hop said as he looked through his ingredients pocket. 

\--

Victor rode his bike back to the mainland and got off to look around for berry trees. As he saw one he caught some motion out of the corner of his eye and turned. There was a bush rustling a bit and he shrugged it off, thinking it must just be a wild pokemon. 

What he didn’t know at the time, was that it was Oleana and four corrupt members of the league staff watching him. 

Victor approached the berry tree and set his bag down. He looked up and saw several chesto berries high in the tree. They would be perfect. He thought as he took hold of the tree trunk and started shaking. He heard a noise from behind him and turned around suddenly seeing Oleana there. 

“Um…?” he was very confused “Hi?” he looked around seeing the league officials and realized he was both surrounded and outnumbered. 

Oleana sighed, “Let’s just get this over with.” She growled taking out a pokeball. 

“Wait hold on!” Victor said his back to the tree trunk “You can’t just challenge me five against one! That’s such an unfair fight!” 

Oleana rolled her eyes. “Whatever, kid, just take out your pokemon.” 

Victor’s bag rustled and he reached in taking out his entire party into his arms he frowned very nervous to be backed into such a corner. He let five of his Pokemon out, they seemed to be just as confused and scared as he was. His Diggersby sniffed the air and growled, his Gyarados backed closer to her trainer giving her opponent an evil looking glare. His Boltund barked loudly at the Corviknight it was facing. Victor swallowed nervously. 

In the end, it could hardly be considered a fight. Even with Victors level 70 Rillabloom, he didn’t stand a chance and had to watch as the league official took out his last Pokemon with a well timed blast burn. As Rillabloom returned to his pokeball, Victor suddenly felt lightheaded and short of breath. He doubled over his hands on his knees gasping for air until he finally blacked out. 

Oleana regarded him coldly. One of the league officials slung Victor over his shoulder, his hat fell off into the grass beneath him. 

“Leave his bag.” She ordered “Just take his Pokemon, Rose wanted them too.” 

They put one of the league staff’s jacket, sunglasses and hat on Victor to disguise him as they carried him into Hammerlocke. They went down into the powerplant and through a secret set of stairs hidden behind a fake wall. They were now deep below the powerplant. The league staff tied his arms and legs as tight as they could and dropped him in a locked room. The staff member could feel the pokeballs shutter with how angry the Pokemon inside were as they left Victor tied up on the floor.

\--

Meanwhile, in the wild area, Hop was sitting by the fire waiting for Victor to come back. It had been almost an hour and he hadn’t seen any sign of him. 

Sent at 8pm “Hey, are you on your way back?”

Sent at 8:15 “Helloooo?” 

Sent at 8:20 “Viiicccc” 

Sent at 8:30 “You okay?” 

Sent at 8:45 “Victor?” 

He frowned at his phone, hoping Victor was okay. He must have run into a Dynamax den and gotten distracted, yeah that had to be it. He tapped his fingers nervously against the ground thinking he would give his friend another twenty minutes. Yeah, twenty minutes was reasonable. If Victor had found a Dynamax den twenty minutes would be plenty of time to clear it and come back… right? Five minutes passed… and then ten… fifteen… nineteen… Hop stood up, he was worried now, he put his bag on his back and went to look for Victor. Maybe he had twisted his ankle or something? Maybe he had gotten attacked by a particularly vicious Pokemon and was stuck in a long battle? The possibilities continued to race through his head as he got on his bike to cross the lake. 

He looked around and saw a berry tree in the distance, Victor must have headed that way. He ran over to the tree and looked around. There were scorch marks on the earth and tufts of grass that had been uprooted and flung around the tree. There was a large puddle of water even though it hadn’t rained all day and the huge boulder by the tree had three deep gashes like claw marks. There must have been some amazing battle here, he thought as he continued searching. Several feet from the tree he saw something laying in the grass and made his way over to pick it up. Victor’s hat. He felt his heart pound. It must have fallen off, he probably saw a rare Pokemon and went to chase after it right? Then he looked a few feet further and saw his bag, the main pocket open, no party pokeballs in sight. Hop felt his heart leap into his throat as he saw a place where the grass had been squished down, uncannily just about the size of Victor. He felt his palms start to sweat as he took out his Rotom phone. He didn’t know what to do, he was scared. Something must have happened to Victor. He opened his phone and called Leon. 

Leon was out to dinner with some of the gym leaders when his Rotom phone started ringing. When he looked and saw that it was Hop and excused himself from the table to answer. He had to tell Hop to take a deep breath. 

“Easy, Hop, calm down and talk to me slowly.” He said trying to sooth him “What happened?” 

Hop looked at him “Something happened to Victor.” He seemed absolutely terrified. 

“What do you mean? What happened?” Leon asked. It worried him deeply to see Hop in such a state. 

Hop told him what he knew. He and Victor had gone to the wild area together to train, they had set up camp, Victor had gone looking for berries and hadn’t come back. After over an hour of waiting, Hop went looking for him. He found his hat and bag in the grass where it looked like there had been a very intense battle. 

Leon frowned “Ok stay there, Hop I’ll head down there and help you look for him. If there was a really intense battle and now he’s missing it’s possible that he got attacked by an especially strong or angry pokemon.” 

“Ok, I’m by the Berry tree in the Giant’s Cap.” Hop told him, looking around for signs of any other dangerous wild pokemon.

Leon nodded “I’ll have Charizard fly me there. Just stay put till I get there okay?” He hung up and took his Charizard out and told it where they needed to go. 

As Charizard flew him to the wild area Leon couldn’t help but worry. It was such a strange set of circumstances. His intuition told him that it was likely more than one Pokemon that had attacked Victor based on Hop’s description of the battlefield. Unless there was some single Pokemon out there that could do all that. He frowned, anxious as Charizard landed in the Giant’s Cap and he looked around trying to find Hop. His Charizard nudged him with its snout and pointed with its foot. He looked over and saw Hop sitting under the Berry tree holding Victors hat. He ran towards his little brother. 

He had never seen Hop look so sad. He looked incredibly lonely as he held Victors hat, his bag in the grass next to him. Leon knelt down in front of his brother. 

“Hop? Are you okay?” he asked worried. 

Hop didn’t reply, only nodded and looked up at him, his eyes full of anxiety. Leon helped him up and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. 

“Hey, don’t worry okay? We’ll find him. I’m sure he just battled a Pokemon he couldn’t beat and ran to try and escape it.” He said trying to reassure his brother. 

Hop just nodded and tried to smile as Leon ruffled his hair. 

“Let’s search the wild area first, okay?” Leon said taking the rest of his Pokémon out and telling them who to look for. Charizard stayed with them as they set out to search for Victor. 

\--

Meanwhile, in the basement under the power plant, Victor was slowly waking up. His head ached and his throat was dry and he tried to sit up, only to realize his arms and legs were tied tight. The ropes were so tight he couldn’t feel his hands or feet anymore. He rolled over and looked around the room. It was barren and concrete, no windows only one metal door with a sliver of light coming through the crack underneath. He squirmed into a sitting position and shivered at the cold. He felt naked without his backpack, without the comforting presence of his Pokemon. He heard footsteps in the hall and curled up into a ball, scared as the door opened a crack and something was slid in before the door closed and locked again. He looked up and saw a plate of plain curry. He shifted over to it frustrated that he couldn’t use his hands as he bent down taking careful bites. It was really not good. Koffing class curry, but it was food and his stomach felt like a hollow pit inside him so he ate the whole plate, trying to ignore the rising nausea in his stomach, the curry smelled like it might have gone bad. He inched around the cell he was in searching for water and found a rusty spigot on the wall. He squirmed so his hands could reach it and turned it on. The pipes shuttered and freezing cold water flushed out soaking his back and hands. He jumped away, crying out in surprise. He squirmed around and drank as much water as he could, he had never been so thirsty. He turned around turning the spigot off with numb cold hands. He squirmed away to the corner and curled up shivering. He missed his Pokemon and he really, really missed Hop. He stared at the wall and wondered what Hop was doing now. Was he looking for him? Victor certainly hoped so. He felt asleep curled up by the wall, soaking wet and freezing.


	2. Chapter 2

Hop and Leon had searched all over the Wild area. They asked every hiker, Watt trader and fisher they had run into. None of them had seen Victor. Leon called the gym leaders and asked them to help him search. The only one who was available to help that night was Raihan but he had been eager to search with them. With their permission he posted about it on his social media page and now half the region was searching for Victor too. Raihan hadn’t even thought to look under his own gym.

\--

It had been three days and Leon was starting to get suspicious of Rose. It was clear the man had been faking his concerned reaction when he told him Victor had disappeared. And he said he would send league officials out to search through the region but Leon hadn’t seen a single one in any of the search parties. He knew Rose thought he was an idiot, the dumber he thought Leon was the better. He trusted Rose about as far as he could throw him. He started listening closer to the conversations between the league officials and picking up on suspicious things they said. Things he didn’t know the context of such as:

“I wonder how our guest is doing.” Then they both had laughed. 

“What do you think Frank put in the guest’s curry today? Poor bastard.” 

“Rose thinks the plan should be fine, now that the obstacle has been taken care of.”

“Man I wouldn’t want to be in that guest room. The poor guy has to be freezing his ass off.” 

He noticed that all of these conversations seemed to revolve around an unnamed guest, obstacle or plan. He kept notes of these interactions in his phone, but there was a lot he wasn’t able to piece together. He knew he needed help to see if or how this was connected to Victor’s disappearance. He paced his hotel room bouncing ideas off of Hop. Poor Hop, he had gotten so quiet and withdrawn ever since Victor disappeared. It was clear they were close, closer than Leon had initially thought if Hop’s recent change in behavior was any indication. He would sit on the bed, holding Victor’s hat and staring at the wall. It seemed like nothing Leon tried could shake him out of his funk either. Charizard class curry, an entire flock of friendly wooloo courtesy of Milo, a cuddly Yamper, a worried call from their mother. None of it had worked and it worried Leon every time he saw Hop force a fake smile onto his face and insist, 

“Really, Lee I’m okay I promise!” It was abundantly clear he was not fine. And Leon was beginning to suspect the friendship he had with his rival had some deeper underlying feelings. Leon was a smart man, he couldn’t remain the undefeated champion if he were really a clueless idiot like Rose seemed to think. But the two things he was really terrible at were directions and interpersonal skills. He sighed, and decided to call Sonia. If anyone would be able to piece together this mess and help them find Victor, it would be her. 

Sonia was sitting in the lab when she got a call from Leon. She knew exactly why he was calling. It was the middle of the night and Victor had been missing for three days now. 

They talked for about an hour, Leon gave her all the suspicious snippets of conversation he had overheard. 

“What do you think?” he asked 

“Well the way I see it there are several possibilities.” She said intelligently. “Rose could have kidnapped Victor and is referring to Victor as the guest. Or the Guest could be an extremely powerful Pokemon Rose is trying to hide. Or the guest could be completely unrelated, it could be a red herring. Either one Rose set up intentionally or accidentally. He might also be referring to Oleana? I get the feeling she’s more than just his assistant if you see what I’m saying.” She said counting off the possibilities on her hand.

Leon shook his head “Even if this is just a red herring meant to distract us from Victor, it still warrants its own investigation once we find him.” he said “Whoever this ‘guest’ is it seems like they’re staying in pretty bad conditions. The word definitely meant something to them based on the way they said it.” He groaned rubbing his eyes, exhausted. “Either way, Rose’s lack of concern over this entire situation is enough for me to think he’s connected to it. When I told him Victor was missing, he got all shifty eyed and I could tell he was hiding something.” 

Sonia nodded. “Keep him thinking you’re an idiot. The less careful he is around you the better. Was Raihan able to get anything out of him?” 

“He’s still working on him. I think Rose trusts Raihan. He at least wants to be on good terms with him. He said he would call me tomorrow, well today, it’s almost 1 am.” Leon said looking at the clock on the wall. 

Sonia seemed worried “Rose doesn’t know you and Raihan are…?” Leon shook his head 

“Rose doesn’t know anything.” He said “He thinks we still just have a ‘friendly rivalry’ and that’s exactly what we need him to think until we figure out what he’s hiding.” 

Sonia nodded pensively “You know who’s been acting really off is Oleana.” She said “Usually she’s glued to Rose’s side, but I went to Hammerlock to look at the tapestries yesterday, and I saw her on her own twice and there were three times I saw her whispering to the league staff.” Leon frowned 

“That’s definitely suspicious.” he said writing it down “She’s too smart to drop information like the league staff might. I’ll ask Raihan to keep an eye out for her.” 

“You know who we ought to ask?” Sonia said the thought coming to her suddenly “Opal. She’s got that kid, Bebe? Bidet? Whatever his name was. Big pink jacket, hair looked like a wooloo. He and Victor fought a lot and he might have some information about Rose and Oleana we don’t know yet.” 

Leon nodded and sighed. “I’ll call her and see.” he said “She’s got all the Pokemon in the forest out looking for him.” 

Sonia looked at him, appraisingly “You need to go to bed, you certainly won’t get any good thinking done while you’re like this. It looks like you’re about to drop dead.” 

Leon shook his head “I can’t sleep, I tried. Hop keeps having nightmares so it’s best I stay awake anyway.” 

Sonia frowned “So the Yamper didn’t work?” 

“Nope, same fake smile. It’s sleeping on his chest right now.” He angled the phone to show her Hop sprawled out on the hotel bed with the yamper sound asleep on top of him. One of Milos wooloo was laying on the bed too snoring away. 

Sonia’s frown deepened “Hop must really love him if it’s gotten this bad.” Leon watched his brother worried for him.

Sonia looked at him “At least try to get some rest, okay?” She said “I know you have to take care of Hop but you have to take care of yourself too.” 

Leon smiled “I’ll do my best. Thanks for letting me bounce ideas off of you Sonia, the more people we have working on this, the better.” 

Sonia nodded “text me if you hear any other suspicious conversations.” she said “I want all the details so we can figure out what’s happening. 

Leon nodded, “Will do. Goodnight.” 

“Goodnight.” She hung up. 

\--

When Victor woke up next the ropes on his arms and legs had been replaced with metal cuffs attached to chains in the wall it took him a minute to realize this as he tried to shake off the dizziness that comes with hunger and dehydration. He turned the spigot on and it shuddered and hissed spitting out more freezing water. He drank from his cupped hands this time unable to move more than a few feet from the corner. The door opened again and a league official came in with a plate of foul curry. Victor tried to demand answers. 

“Where am I?!” 

“Why did you bring me here?” 

“Where are my pokemon?!”

“What’s going on?” 

But the league official ignored him and set down the plate of curry and next to it what looked like a roll of toilet paper. Victor was confused until he looked around and realized there was what looked like a prison toilet sitting next to him. He closed his eyes scared, how long would it be before someone found him? Would they eventually forget he was here? He couldn’t stand the idea of never seeing his pokemon again. Of never seeing his mother, or Hop, even Bede. He heard something scuttle across the floor and curled up into a smaller ball. He felt something crawl across his foot and yelled in surprise kicking he squinted to see what it was and saw that it was a Rattata. They were non native to Galar so they were never kept by people but at least it was a pokemon. He looked at the Rattata and it growled at him running back to the hole in the opposite wall. Victor closed his eyes trying to keep tears at bay, praying that someone would find him down there. His mind's eye suddenly flashed to an image of his parents. His father was off in Sinnoh doing some important work with the champion there but he was sure his mother had called him and told him their son had vanished off the face of the earth. He hated thinking about them worrying about him, it was the last thing he wanted to do. He began to wonder if he would ever see them again and it all became too much, he started crying quietly. He buried his face in his knees trying to stifle the sobs that worked their way through his chest as he sat alone in the darkness. 

\--

Hop had dreams about Victor. He had for a long time, ever since they were both living in Postwick. But back then, they were happy dreams, dreams about Victor’s eyes, his lips, his skin. But now, they were lonely, scary dreams. He had dreams about finding out that something horrible had happened to Victor, that he wasn’t coming back. He had heard stories about people being attacked by very angry wild Pokemon never being able to walk or see again and those stories flashed to the forefront of his mind now as he tried not to think about those things happening to Victor. The thought of it made him sick. He knew his behavior was worrying Lee, so he tried to act as normal as he could. That didn’t stop the nightmares, though. Every night for the past five days now, he had woken up to Leon shaking him awake and holding him as he fell apart. It brought him back to his childhood when he would have nightmares and :eon would come into his room and stay with him until he fell back asleep. He appreciated Leon’s numerous efforts to cheer him up, but nothing seemed to help. All he could do was hope that wherever Victor was, he was safe until they found him. 

\--

Leon was incredibly busy, the semifinals had been postponed since one of the participants had completely vanished. Disappearances were very rare in Galar - people tended not to vanish like this especially gym challengers. The league officials were hired specifically to make sure the gym challengers were safe on their journey. The league officials… For something to happen to Victor without the league officials noticing was awfully suspicious. They were stationed all over the wild area as watt traders if he was moved out of the wild area, one of them must have noticed. Leon was pulled from his thoughts by a call from Raihan. 

“Hi, love.” he said, his smile strained. 

Raihan smiled back “Hi, yourself.” he said “You doing okay?” 

“I’m...managing.” Leon said rubbing his forehead. 

Raihan’s smile was replaced by a look of concern. “Well, I found some useful information.” He said. “It seems like only a certain set of the league officials are in the know about whoever this guest is.” 

Leon blinked “really?” He asked, interested. 

“Yep, I’ve been listening to their conversations in the locker room, it’s the same four guys who bring up the ‘guest’ and ‘plan’ every time.” Raihan told his partner. “Frank, Charles, Pat, and Conner.” 

Leon wrote their names down. “Keep trying to weed information out of them if you can.” he said. 

Raihan shook his head “it’s all variations on a theme. They talk about a bad guest room, pitying the guest, and some sort of obstacle getting in the way of a plan. I’m sure if Rose has anything to do with it, Oleana is threatening them to keep their mouths shut.” 

Leon nodded he looked tired. “Do you want to come over tonight?” he asked after a moment’s silence. 

“Is that even a question?” 

\--

Later the next day, Leon got a call from Opal

“Hi, Opal.” 

“Hello, dear.” She said watching him. “I talked to Bede like you asked. He’s pretending not to be worried but I know he is, he should be in Wyndon tonight to talk to you.” 

Leon nodded “Thanks, Opal. Any signs of him in the forest?” 

“None.” She said, sounding disappointed. “I’ve had my Togekiss flying all over the region but we haven’t found anything.”

Leon paused for a long while and then looked at her “I’m thinking of calling Victor’s father. I’m sure his mother has already told him, but having his family in the know is good. If he reaches out, the first people he’ll reach out to will be his parents.” 

“You certainly should.” She said firmly, “Can you imagine what his parents must be thinking? Their fourteen-year-old son disappeared off the face of the earth without a word to anyone.” 

Leon shook his head, he didn’t want to imagine that kind of pain. 

Opal’s eyes softened “Bede should be there soon. He knows a lot about Rose and Oleana. He’ll tell you as much as he can and I hope it helps.” 

“Thanks, Opal, this means a lot.” He smiled a bit “I should go, I need to feed the pokemon.” 

They said goodbye to each other and hung up.

\--

Leon went to meet Bede that afternoon at the Battle cafe in Wyndon. They were both matching in fashion sense it seemed. Leon in his questionable cape and uniform and Bede looking like a hot pink marshmallow with a wooloo on his head. 

Bede regarded him as he sat down, “You look like shit.”

“Well, I feel like shit,” Leon said pretending to be unfazed by how brash this child seemed. “It’s been a long week, Bede and I have some questions to ask you.”


	3. Chapter 3

Bede looked at him, “The first thing you should understand about Rose is that everything he does and says is to reach whatever goal he’s working towards. Everything he does is with an agenda. As for Oleana, everything she does is to assist Rose. As far as I know, she doesn’t have an agenda of her own, she just wants to help him further his.” 

Leon looked at him “You sound like you have experience with this.” 

Bede’s eyes hardened “They use people.” Was all he said in response to that. “Why do you need to ask about them anyway? You’re the champion, aren’t you close to them?” 

“Not exactly.” He said. He lowered his voice “I think they have something to do with Victor disappearing. I told Rose about it and the look on his face, It was like he knew something that he wouldn’t tell me. Like he was hiding something.” 

Bede nodded, “He’s always hiding something. Don’t let Oleana catch on to you.” He warned him “She’s sneaky, she’ll do everything she can to make sure you stay in the dark.” 

Leon looked at him, “Do you know what they could be hiding? Any ideas at all?” 

Bede stared at his hands “Well, when they were taking care of me, they always told me to keep an eye out for wishing stars. And to bring them as many as I could. So it could have something to do with the wishing stars or dynamaxing.” 

Leon thought for a moment “That does make sense, the battlefield where Hop found his stuff looked like it must have either seen a dynamax pokemon or a group of especially angry pokemon… I’ve been overhearing some of the league officials talking about a ‘guest’ too. Do you know anything about that?” 

Bede frowned “That could mean two things, either a Pokemon or a person. Whenever Rose was keeping a Pokemon as a ‘guest’ that meant he was having the lab in Wyndon experiment on it. When it’s a person, it means he saw that person as a threat and wanted to stop them so he would lock them in a ‘guest room’. I don’t know much about the ‘guest room’ though.”

Leon seemed even more worried. “So the guest is either a Pokemon or a person… How many did he have while you were staying with him?” 

“No idea, He never referred to them as anything other than ‘guest’ so I don’t know if there was ever more than one.” 

Leon nodded, deep in thought. All of the sudden the ground started to shake. 

“What the hell?” They both ran outside Leon looked and saw a huge beam of red light coming from Hammerlocke’s stadium. 

Leon frowned, let out his Charizard and flew toward the stadium. At the time, he didn’t know that Hop was on his way too. 

\--

When Leon landed outside the Gym, Raihan was there evacuating people. 

“Go to the power plant!” He told Leon as he picked up two scared pokemon to carry them out of the city. “I’ll meet you there once everyone’s out!” Leon ran inside and saw Hop standing there. 

“Hop what are you doing?” Hop looked at him he had a spark of determination behind his eyes 

“Something bad is happening. I want to help you.” He was holding an old rusty sword and shield. “Sonia told me to bring these. She said they might help.” 

“Ok, just be careful.” Leon told him as they took the elevator down into the power plant. Oleana was there waiting for them, she looked furious. 

“Absolutely not.” She growled, “You two aren’t going to interrupt the chairman’s plan, I don’t that you’re the champion!” 

The battle against her was easy. She was outnumbered and Leon’s Charizard was an absolute beast. Oleana screamed in frustration looking more flustered than Leon had ever seen her. They both walked past her. Raihan came down the elevator to join them. 

They approached the main room of the power plant and saw Rose standing there, he turned to look at them. 

“Why are you here?” He asked “Don’t you know this is a great day? A day to celebrate? The entire Galar region will have a limitless energy supply for the rest of eternity!” 

Leon shook his head “Chairman, you’ve become blinded. Raihan, Hop, fight him while I go to the roof and stop what’s happening.” 

Rose looked at him “The roof? Don’t you want the basement? You haven’t figured it out yet?” He laughed. “Sure, sure, try going to the roof and see if you can stop what I’ve set in motion.” 

Raihan glared “Enough, take out your pokemon, Rose.” He said prepared for battle. 

\--

Leon made his way to the roof confused, the basement? There was no basement in the power plant, right? He reached the top of the stairs and stopped in shock. 

He saw Eternatus standing there and all of Victor’s Pokemon with it. Something was wrong with them, it was like they were being controlled against their will. Their movements were stiff and jerky as they moved towards him. 

Leon’s face hardened into a steely look as he let out his pokemon. It wasn’t long before Raihan and Hop joined him. 

Hop stopped when he saw Victors pokemon there, and suddenly came to a realization. The basement! If there was a basement in the building, that had to be where Victor was. He looked at them and knew they would need Victor if they had even the slimmest chance of stopping the darkest day. With Victor on the roof with them, his Pokemon would stop attacking. He ran back down the stairs and found Chairman Rose again he pointed the rusted sword at him, he had never felt so angry. 

“Where is Victor?” He demanded as Rose held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. 

“He’s in the baseme-” 

“Where is the basement?!” Hop yelled pointing the sword closer to the chairman's fancy tie

“Fine, fine! Down the hall, there’s a painting of a landscape, there’s a hidden button under the bottom left corner of the frame! It’ll open the door to a stairway that leads to the basement.” Rose had backed into the wall. 

Hop took off running, he reached the painting and pressed the button, pulling the door open and was faced with a dark set of stairs that seemed to descend into the abyss. There was a feeling of dread around the place, a sense of fear and suffering. Hop felt around the wall until he found a lightswitch and took the stairs two at a time. He saw a locked metal door and took out his dubwool, urging it to break the door down. 

Light flooded the tiny room and Hop saw someone curled up in the corner he pushed the door open further and saw that it was Victor, there were thick steel cuffs around his wrists and ankles and he was shivering bad, his hair was weighed down with dirt, his arms were scraped and bruised. He was hiding his face from the sudden bright light. Hop ran into the room. 

“Victor!” He hugged him tightly, his body shaking. 

Victor blinked and slowly raised his head “Hop?” his face was pale, and hollow with hunger, he had a bruise on his right temple and a scratch on his cheek. Hop couldn't stop the tears welling in his eyes despite his best efforts. 

“Oh, thank God, thank fuck, you’re okay…” he mumbed into Victors hair as he held him “You’re fucking freezing, we need to get to the roof, Rose is trying to set off a second Darkest Day and he’s using your pokemon to do it.” 

“He’s what?!” Victor asked angrily as Hop let out his Corviknight to break the cuffs on his wrists and ankles. 

“I know,” Hop said barely containing his rage “When I saw them, that’s when I knew you had to be in the building somewhere. Raihan and I kicked Rose’s ass and now he and Leon are trying to battle both your Pokemon and the giant, scary Pokemon that set off the first Darkest Day.” 

He helped Victor stand on shaky legs and handed him the rusted sword “Sonia said this would help, it’s better than nothing.” Victor nodded holding onto the sword like a lifeline as they made their way up to the roof. He still wasn’t steady on his feet so Hop helped him walk and wrapped his jacket around his shoulders. 

“Did they feed you at all?” He asked anxiously feeling how boney Victor had gotten with just one week’s absence. 

“Yeah, but the food made me sick.” He said “I couldn’t keep it down.” 

When they made it to the roof, Raihan and Leon were still fighting against Victor’s first Pokemon, none of their moves were doing any damage to it. Victor frowned sternly at his Gyarados. 

“Gary!” he shouted, sounding like a scolding parent “What do you think you’re doing?! You get back in your Pokeball right now, you hear me?!” Gary blinked and backed up, she looked at her trainer and recognition dawned in her eyes. She let out a meek bubble and returned to her Pokeball. 

Leon turned around and saw Hop with Victor he was so relieved, with this mysterious power coming from Eteratus, Victor’s Pokemon were ten times as powerful as they normally would be. Even combined, he and Raihan were in trouble. Hop helped Victor stand, he scolded all of his Pokemon, hearing his voice, brought them back to themselves and broke Eternatus’s control over them. Victor held his pokeballs and sighed. 

“Thank God, they’re okay.” He mumbled quietly. 

Leon and Raihan had gotten Eternatus’s HP down by quite a lot, Leon aimed and threw one single normal pokeball at the giant, powerful monster floating in front of them. Eternatus went into the pokeball though he barely fit, and it fell to the ground. Then the earth beneath them seemed to shutter as the pokeball exploded. Charizard shielded Victor and Hop with his wings but Raihan and Leon took the full force of the blast and hit the ground hard. Hop ran to make sure his brother was okay. 

Both Leon and Raihan were unconscious so Hop and his Dubwool pulled them off the battlefield where they would be safe before running back to where Victor was standing commanding his Gyarados to use hydro pump on Eternatus. The attack bounced right off of Eternatus and hit a nearby building without doing any damage. Hop frowned, and then realized something. 

“Victor, take out the sword!” he said pulling the shield from his bag. Victor looked over and took out the sword. It began to float out of his hands and towards the sky. He watched in shock and looked over at Hop for some kind of explanation. There was a sudden bright light and two huge pokemon stood beside them. Victor watched them amazed. 

“What are they?” he asked Hop, watching the pokemon.

“Zacian and Zamazenta.” Hop said “They’re the sword and shield from the legend.” Victor watched amazed as Zacian looked at him with and unreadable expression in its eyes. 

Victor wasn’t sure if he was really there or this was some wild hallucination brought on by the cold and lack of food in the cell, but he watched as the two Pokemon disabled Eternatus’s power. He blinked and ordered his Gyarados to use hydro pump again. It hit this time, despite being a very powerful move, it didn’t do as much damage as Victor would have expected. 

The earth trembled beneath them as they fought and when Eternatus was weakened, Victor threw another pokeball and waited with baited breath until Eternatus was caught. He walked over slowly, still not very steady after sitting for an entire week, and picked up the pokeball, taking a deep breath. He heard a bark from behind him and turned seeing Zacian. He reached out slowly and Zacian bumped its snout against his outstretched hand before it and Zamazenta both vanished. 

Victor’s legs trembled and he fell on his butt, Hop knelt down in front of him.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Vic.” he said looking at him, worried. “I didn’t know what had happened, at first we thought you’d been attacked by a really strong wild Pokemon or something.” He hugged him and closed his eyes. 

Victor squeezed his eyes shut, “I didn’t know what was happening either.” he admitted. “I thought I-” He could feel tears choking him up. “I thought I would never see you again. I thought I was going to be trapped down there for the rest of my life.” He was trembling now. “I didn’t think I would ever get to see you become champion, or-” He suppressed a sob “or see Dad come back home…” he closed his eyes tight as tears worked their way down his cheeks. Hop hugged him, they were both shaking hard. 

When Leon came to, he sat up slowly, his head aching. Raihan was already awake and was shaking him. 

“There you are!” Raihan said relieved as he hugged him. “We both took quite a hit, I just woke up too.” Leon rubbed his back and then realized. 

“Where is Hop?” He asked sitting up. 

“Over there, he’s fine. So is Victor.” Raihan pointed to the two of them who were sitting huddled with Leon’s Charizard. Leon nodded relaxing in Raihan’s embrace for a moment. 

After the moment had passed, Leon sat up and looked over at Hop and Victor. “We should take them to the hospital, and we have to call the police about Rose…” 

Raihan nodded. “Already done, the ambulance is on its way and so are the police.” Leon was struck at that moment by how much he loved and appreciated Raihan. He leaned up to kiss him softly. Raihan kissed back chastely which was unusual for him, but for the circumstances it was understandable. 

“What happened to Eternatus?” He asked looking around like a giant poisonous dragon could just hide from them. 

“Victor caught it.” Raihan told him “You’ll have to ask them to explain later, I’m not sure I fully understand what happened.” 

Leon nodded, leaning into his arms again as the police and ambulance arrived. 

\--

Victor spent the next week and a half in the hospital. While he hadn’t been seriously injured, he was very dehydrated and he hadn’t eaten in a week. The doctors didn’t want him battling until he and his Pokémon were back to perfect health and that would take some time. 

While he was at the hospital, his mom had come to visit him and they called his dad on her Rotom phone. They had both been unspeakably worried about him, his mother had started crying when she saw that he was alive and unhurt. He could tell his father was holding back a very strong emotional response as well. Victor told them the same thing he had told the police earlier that afternoon when he was checked into the hospital. He could tell how furious both of his parents were. His father had to end the call after about two hours to go to another meeting but his mother stayed for the rest of the day, holding him until she had to go back to her hotel room to get some rest. 

When his mother left, Hop and Leon came by to check on him too. Leon ruffled his hair good-naturedly and Hop was finally able to give him his hat back. Hop seemed to be acting strangely again, and when Leon stepped out for a moment to answer a call, Victor found out why. 

“Hey Vic, I…” Hop trailed off, not sure how to phrase the thoughts in his head and the feelings in his heart. He took a deep breath. 

“When you disappeared, I realized a few things.” He said staring at his hands. Oh, God he was actually doing it, he was actually telling him. 

Victor nodded “What kind of things?” 

“Well, I’ve never even considered something like this happening, we’ve always been beside each other for as long as I can remember.” He said leaning closer. “When you went missing, I think I finally realized that how I feel about you is different than friendship.” Victor stared at him shocked. Hop steeled himself to say it. “I love you, Victor.” he looked back down at his hands. 

Victor reached out and touched Hop’s cheek urging him to look up, “I love you too.” He whispered kissing him softly. 

Hops eyes opened wide when he felt Victors lips on his. He closed his eyes kissing back. Neither of them really knew what to do they both fumbled, awkwardly holding each other. Victor pulled back, breaking the kiss. He was smiling, his face was flushed pink. 

Hop had never seen anyone look so absolutely adorable in his entire life, he smiled and hugged Victor closing his eyes. They still had the semifinals and finals to worry about of course, but right now, they were both happy and that’s all they needed. 

Fin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it! Hope you liked it. I asked for a tablet for Christmas so hopefully, I can have the comic finished by the start of January before I have to go back to school. I'll post a link here if that happens.


End file.
